Whisper
Andrea Tellierra was a child actress and model who garnered quite a bit of fame when she was in her pre-teen years, topped off with the fact that her mother was arrested and imprisoned for drug charges and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and Andrea then legally divorced her mother to set herself and her finances free of her forever. She then faded from public view and did her best to live a normal life, despite her growing mutant powers. When she graduated high school, she joined the US Army, months before the heinous terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. She has spent ten years in the military serving overseas, moving up in the ranks to Chief Warrant Officer and into the Special Operations Group as the operator callsign Whisper, serving her country in the war on terror. Now she is back in the US and out of uniform, waiting to see what her future will hold. Background * Mother did drug and medical trials for money in college * Bio-father active-duty military taking undergrad courses, on drug trials * One night stand * Mother forced to drop out with pregnancy, went on welfare * After Andrea is born, took her to several open casting calls * Andrea chosen as a Gerber baby, other print and video baby work * Off welfare, mother moves them to LA, pursues modeling & acting for Andrea * Mother soon becomes 'stage mother' from Hell * Andrea does not initially realize how different she is * As she discovers differences, keeps them secret, fearing mother's reaction * With increased profile and money, mother gets into drugs, etc. * At age eight, Andrea cast for major kids drama role * Mother's drug abuse and other behaviors worsen * Andrea goes to police officer on set as advisor, asks for help * Mother is arrested, Andrea is put in foster care * Officer Jacobs stays in touch with Andrea as ber Big Brother * Andrea seeks injunction, preventing Mother from accessing her monies * Andrea leaves acting, modeling after one year, goes to normal school * Mother is convicted on drug charges, contributing to the deliquency, etc. * Courts grant Andrea a 'divorce' from Mother, severing all financial ties * Andrea idolizes Officer Jacobs, eventually reveals her secret to him * Jacobs advises her to keep it secret, helps her to puzzle it out * Andrea pushes herself physically, never wanting to be weak or dependent * With no parents to secure funding for school, Andrea decides on GI Bill * Andrea joins the Army just months before 9/11 attacks * Andrea is shipped overseas, proves to be exceptional in Signal Operations * Attached to Counter Intelligence operations, advanced field training * In crisis situations, repeatedly demonstrates talent beyond scope * Andrea reveals to her CO that she is a mutant, what her powers are * Andrea is transferred to Special Operations Group * Andrea becomes an operator for SOG, receives advanced field training * Andrea's callsign is Whisper * Whisper credited with missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan * Mission to rescue supposed kidnapped metahuman girl from terrorist cell * Mission goes sideways, forced extraction as cell and camp obliterated * Medical stay at field hospital results in personnel learning mutant status * Unrest in the camp causes morale and discipline problems * Andrea is shipped stateside to put an end to the problems * On detached duty, facing a possible Article 32, Andrea is put on leave in NY Personality Andrea Tellierra is a bright, strong-willed young patriot. Despite the difficulties and dangers of her time with the Army, she is proud of her service to her country, and of her accomplishments. She gladly accepts the risks because she believes in the work they are doing, even if she sometimes questions the wisdom of those sent them overseas in the first place. She has long wanted to find a way to prove herself, to herself and to others, to be something more than her mother, or what her mother wanted to make of her: just a pretty face, a talking head as vapid, shallow, self-obsessed and self-destructive as she was. Now she feels at home with herself, because she has reached that plateau in her life. Now, she'd like to build for the long-term. Love, family, and decide on a career path, either in the army or perhaps back in civilian life. But she's finding it hard to imagine anything else feeling as meaningful as service in the military does now. Powers * EM-Kinetic: Andrea is a mutant born with electromagnetic-kinetic abilities; she can perceive such energies directly across most of the spectrum, and influence or alter those energies. Her body absorbs some of this energy, and can project it when needed. * Light Perception: Andrea does not 'see' with her eyes, but with her mind, perceiving light energies all around herself out to a range of about half a mile in 'crowded' or urban conditions, out to perhaps 15-20 miles in flat, open territory. She can 'see' in extreme low-light conditions not not zero-light. If there is light beyond a barrier, she can perceive that light if it is in her range, walls not an impediment though /inside/ walls is zero-light. Energy barriers and living tissues interfere with this. Can perceive down to microscopic levels with concentration. * Sound Perception: Andrea does not 'hear' with her ears, but with her mind, perceiving sound energies all around herself out to a range of about one quarter mile in noisy or urban conditions, out to perhaps 7-10 miles in quiet, open terrain. She can usually pinpoint a sound rather well, though more noise makes it harder. Soundproofing does not prevent her perception if the sounds on the other side are still within her range, though in noisy areas she is less likely to notice. * Radio Perception: Andrea can perceive radio band signals and energies, including AM, FM, UHF, broadcast television, WiFi, cellphones, satellite phones and other transmissions. She can tell these types apart, and has learned to decode them on the fly, and trace their origins, signal strength, etc. She can usually pick up a signal casually if it passes 500 feet of her position in signal-crowded urban settings; in largely 'quiet' zones she will pick up signals within a range of nearly 20 miles. * Energy Perception: Andrea can perceive electromagnetic energies directly. In crowded or active urban-like modern settings, this includes the signals passing inside most electronics and electronic-controlled machinery. This can enable her to read the general state of such a system:' idle, active, etc. It is also the basis for her technopathy (below). Note that in a 'quiet' enough setting this will also detect living animals' neurologies. * '''Ambient Absorption:' Andrea constantly absorbs a tiny fraction of the ambient electromagnetic spectrum energies all around herself, storing this within her body like others would that gleaned from digested food. * Energy Absorption: Andrea can actively choose to 'suck in' electromagnetic energies around herself, creating 'null' fields anywhere from a few feet to perhaps 200 feet in diameter, tuned either to a specific type of energy, or absorbing everything. Absorb light, create darkness; sound, silence; radio waves, dead air; electricity, power null; * Flashbang: Andrea can project outward a burst of the energy within herself in the form of an eruption of light and sound, about the magnitude of a military-grade 'flashbang,' blinding, deafening and stunning those in the area without protection. * EMP: Andrea can also release a burst of radio and electrical energies, creating a localized low-grade electromagnetic pulse, disrupting electronics and wiping volatile data storage systems in a 20-50 foot radius. * Illusion: Andrea can manipulate and alter light energies, creating the illusion of presence or absence as she sees fit. These are generally very convincing, but depend on her knowledge of the subject; absence is usually easier than 'creating'. Andrea can manipulate sound or radio energies as well to do the same. * Signal Communication: Andrea can manipulate or project radio energies, altering or creating radio signals as she wishes in AM, FM, cellphone, satellite phone, wifi or other radio frequencies and schemes. She can easily'clean up' or 'distort' said signals as needed. * Technopathy: If able to concentrate, Andrea can read and alter the state of an electronic system, even a closed system with no input/output, reading its state without needing a monitor and issuing commands without a keyboard. She needs near-absolute focus to do this well, and cracking an internally-secured system still requires divining necessary authentication signals. But she can often read those while someone else is using the system, and then replicate them for her own needs. Skills * Firearms: Andrea is a reasonably expert markswoman with most standard Army firearms, including handguns, shotguns, assault rifles and submachine guns. She is well above average for US Army personnel, but barely average for special operations personnel, which includes snipers. However, she has proven to be an exceptional spotter for other snipers, owing to her incredible visual acuity at long ranges. * Close Quarters Combat: With grater experience and training than is standard for US Army boot camp, Andrea is a reasonably proficient close-quarters combatant, armed (including knife, bayonette, club, staff and baton) and unarmed. She was not the bottom of her class in her advanced classes, notable considering she is a woman amongst the best of the best. * Signal Intelligence: Andrea's greatest talent, militarily speaking, is signal operations:' detecting, deciphering, tracking signals on the battlefield, and making it as difficult as possible for the enemy to do the same. Given her innate talents, it shuold come as no wonder that she is considered a wunderkind at this. * '''Computers:' Andrea is not a world-class hacker, but she is better than some simple power user. She has actually made a study of computer security and communications and how to find and exploit their weaknesses, largely funded by Uncle Sam. * Languages: Andrea has been multi-lingual from her earliest years owing to her unique hearing abilities, and she has only increased the breadth of her skills during her time in the military. English is her native language, although she is nearly native-fluent in Spanish (Mexican dialect) and French. She is fluent in German and Portuguese, and passably conversant in Greek, Arabic, Farsi and Persian. * Field Ops: Andrea has undergone extensive training in field operations, including reading from, guiding based on and even making maps, GPS systems, hiking, camping, stealth operations, field camouflage, parachuting, repairing and maintaining gear, etc. * Mechanics: As an activity undertaken along with running, hiking, swimming and sports with Officer Jacobs in her youth, Andrea has more than a passable familiarity with mechanics and mechanical repairs, especially internal combustion engines and cars. When pushed, she can do decent field repairs if the problem isn't too severe and she has parts. It won't necessarily be perfect, but it should run long enough to get somewhere better. * Intelligence Analysis: When her expertise and talent in signal operations was made clear, Andrea was almost immediately attached to Army Intelligence. As such, she had to learn how to analyze and rank intelligence data and sources and draw conclusions, often with very little time to go asking someone else for their input. She's no wunderkind, but she has an amazing memory for details and a facility with languages which makes her far better than average. * Acting: Andrea was acting when most kids are busy with stickball and Barbie dolls. While she has not kept up with it professionally, she has reawakened her talent for the art while working in special operations. She can definitely play a part convincingly, even if she may never get an Oscar for her work now. * Business: Having had to divorce her mother - who handled all of her money and business affairs before she was arrested - at the tender age of nine, Andrea had to learn a lot and learn it fast. She was given help by the courts, but it became quite clear that if she did not learn, all of her money would be long gone. She knows more than a little about the basics of business, especially how to make her money make more money, and how to budget properly. * Art: It should come as no surprise that Andrea is an excellent artist, able to recreate what she has seen with startling accuracy. What might surprise is that her preference instead is for abstract works, and imaginative pieces - creating things she has never seen. These are 'real art' to her, and a passionate hobby. Boons * Memory: Part and parcel of Andrea's mutation is a much-augmented memory. She can recall any scene, location, object or person she has observed. Obviously, the fewer times she has seen it and the longer it has been, the harder it is to recall, requiring significant concentration. She also has an exceptional memory for what she has read, able to recall the page and its content easily - quite an advantage for the young actress years ago, and a benefit to the intelligence analyst of her military career. * Beauty: Andrea has always been blessed with great beauty, from her earliest days. Even with her greater than average physical development, she has maintained her beauty, and has thus far not suffered any significant scars. * Body: Andrea is not just some willowy twig of a girl. She is taller than average by several inches, and very well physically developed, usually able to keep up with the average fit male, though not with heavily muscled or body-builder types. She can press close to two-hundred-fifty pounds, and is agile and has good endurance, able to jog - or march - a marathon in reasonable time, while carrying 80+ pounds of gear. * Army: Andrea is (currently) a Chief Warrant Officer (W-3) in the US Army, making her a commissioned officer, hoving been promoted from Staff Sergeant to Warrant Officer when she was moved to Army Intelligence field command. She has achieved that rank on a competitive basis after ten years of service in the Army, and though her rank is below that of any other commissioned officer, the field experience and expertise indicated by her rank means she can advise even Colonels and expect her advice to be heard. The Army currently provides for all of Andrea's needs, including base housing, uniforms, gear, food, etc. As such the majority of her income goes into savings. * Officer Jacobs: Andrea's 'Big Brother' and closest confidante has long been the LAPD officer who helped her when she most needed it as a child. Darren Jacobs is Andrea's father figure, and she makes no beef about this. His inspiration led her to push for the military, since he was ex-Army himself. He is a good man and an excellent contact for advice, if not much materiel assistance. * Accounts: Andrea has several personal and business accounts, most of which were started when she was a very young child, and which she herself maintains with investments, contracts and residuals. All told, they comprise around a million dollars or so currently in liquid assets, and about three times that in non-liquid assets - real estate and the like. Flaws * Mutant: Andrea is a mutant. Whatever tests can be devised to detect such will detect her, and prejudices about such can and will affect her. Additionally, attacks which focus exclusively on mutant abilities will work on her and hers. * Army: Andrea is still on the rolls as active duty in the US Army, despite her current detached duty and leave. She can be recalled at a moment's notice, put on court martial, or sent back to war to fight and possibly die. She gets no say:' she already agreed to this. It shuld also be noted that there are those within the Army command structure who are aware of her mutant status. Most have chosen to use that and her to the best advantage of their missions, but some could use that against her. * '''Mother:' Andrea's mother has long since gotten out of prison, and is even off of probation from her earlier convictions. And she has a lot of bad blood where Andrea is concerned. She would love to find a way to get back at her, and get her mitts back on Andrea's money. * Energy: To do anything really significant with her powers, Andrea needs energy. She can fire a laser, a beam of light, an explosion of sound. But generating that sort of thing takes energy, and the bigger it is, the more quickly she will exhaust herself. When she is just modifying something already in effect, it's much easier and much less energy is required, so she tends to go subtle unless she has no choice. * Dependence: Andrea is dependent upon her powers. Without them, she is blind and deaf, her eyes and ears never having learned how to function normally. In addition, her body will quickly weaken and sicken if she is sealed off, deprived of the ambient energies she usually absorbs. A standard Faraday cage in a sealed, windowless, soundproofed room would be sufficient, and thus quite possible. * Overwhelmed: With all of the information pouring into Andrea's mind on a constant basis, most would expect her to be catatonic. She is not, but that is because the human mind can get used to anything if given a chance. She has been living with some degree or another of this flood of information all of her life, and has adapted. But part of that adaptation is a natural filtering out of some of the wealth of detail. It's still there, but she doesn't consciously perceive it. Pushed to look at it, she can quickly become overwhelmed. * Enemies: Andrea has spent most of a decade working against the forces of disorder, chaos, resistance and terrorism in and around Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. She has made enemies. Most of those enemies merely target the US military or the country, not caring at all about the individual operatives involved against them. But some of them do, especially those who have just recently dealt with the dangerous Whisper, the only survivor from the ill-fated mission that destroyed their base of operations and many of their comrades. And there are others, including her own supposed allies in the Army. These people actively dislike Andrea, and will cause her trouble, even potentially try to kill her and others around her. Logs * Dogfights and Flashbangs - Memory tracks down and breaks up a dog fighting ring with a metahuman - or meta-pooch - twist, but gets in way over her head. Karolina Dean and Whisper happen by and help out. * Surveillance Interrupted - The Friends of Humanity higher-ups are having a semi-clandestine meeting, and all sorts of various intelligence and law enforcement groups are surveilling the meeting. Slava is here for SHIELD. Andrea is here on her own. And then things go pear-shaped. * Recruitment Drive - After their encounter, Whisper and Logos talk while both are being kept cooling their heels, not leaving the Helicarrier and not quite being told what's going on yet. Eventually, Colonel Fury shows up to have his say. Apparently, they did well. Category:Original Character